Yearly Archives: 2015

Timing Stock Trades for Personal Gain: Private Information and Sales of Shares by CEOs

Posted by Robert Parrino, University of Texas at Austin, on
Wednesday, July 29, 2015
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Robert Parrino is Professor of Finance at the University of Texas at Austin. This post is based on an article by Professor Parrino; Eliezer Fich, Associate Professor of Finance at Drexel University; and Anh Tran, Senior Lecturer in Finance at City University London. Related research from the Program on Corporate Governance includes Insider Trading via the Corporation by Jesse Fried (discussed on the Forum here), Paying for Long-Term Performance (discussed on the Forum here) and the book Pay without Performance: The Unfulfilled Promise of Executive Compensation, both by Lucian Bebchuk and Jesse Fried.

In October 2000, the SEC enacted Rule 10b5-1 which enables managers to reduce their exposure to allegations of trading on material non-public information by announcing pre-planned stock sales up to two years in advance. In our paper, Timing Stock Trades for Personal Gain: Private Information and Sales of Shares by CEOs, which was recently made publicly available on SSRN, we examine the impact of Rule 10b5-1 on the gains that CEOs earn when they sell large blocks of stock.

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Risk Management and the Board of Directors

Posted by Martin Lipton, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, on
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
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Martin Lipton is a founding partner of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, specializing in mergers and acquisitions and matters affecting corporate policy and strategy. This post is based on a Wachtell Lipton memorandum by Mr. Lipton, Daniel A. Neff, Andrew R. Brownstein, Steven A. Rosenblum, and Adam O. Emmerich.

Introduction

Overview

Corporate risk taking and the monitoring of risks have continued to remain front and center in the minds of boards of directors, legislators and the media, fueled by the powerful mix of continuing worldwide financial instability; ever-increasing regulation; anger and resentment at the alleged power of business and financial executives and boards, including particularly as to compensation during times of economic uncertainty, retrenchment, contraction, and changing dynamics between U.S., European, Asian and emerging market economies; and consistent media attention to corporations and economies in crisis. The reputational damage to companies and their boards that fail to properly manage risk is a major threat, and Institutional Shareholder Services now includes specific reference to risk oversight as part of its criteria for choosing when to recommend withhold votes in uncontested director elections. This focus on the board’s role in risk management has also led to increased public and governmental scrutiny of compensation arrangements and the board’s relationship to excessive risk taking and has brought added emphasis to the relationship between executive compensation and effective risk management. This post highlights a number of issues that have remained critical over the years and provides an update to reflect emerging and recent developments.

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Court of Chancery Upholds Customary Release in Spin-Off Transactions

Posted by David A. Katz, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen, & Katz, on
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
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David A. Katz is a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz specializing in the areas of mergers and acquisitions and complex securities transactions. This post is based on a Wachtell Lipton publication by Mr. Katz, William Savitt, and Ryan A. McLeod. This post is part of the Delaware law series, which is cosponsored by the Forum and Corporation Service Company; links to other posts in the series are available here.

The Delaware Court of Chancery last week validated a release of liability that extinguished certain claims a recently spun-off company may have had against its former parent and its directors. In re AbbVie Inc. Stockholder Derivative Litig., C.A. No. 9983-VCG (Del. Ch. July 21, 2015). The decision confirms that the mutual releases customary in spin-off arrangements are presumptively appropriate and enforceable.

Abbott Laboratories spun off AbbVie, its research-based pharmaceutical subsidiary, in January 2013. Before the spin, Abbott was a defendant in a False Claims Act action alleging unlawful off-label marketing of an AbbVie product. As part of the spin-off, AbbVie broadly released all claims it might have against Abbott or any Abbott affiliate relating to assets transferred to AbbVie, including liability for the False Claims Act claim.

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Binding Spincos to Parent Obligations Requires Specificity

Posted by Matt Salerno, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, on
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
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Matt Salerno is a partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. This post is based on a Cleary Gottlieb memorandum by Mr. Salerno, Christopher Condlin, and Christina Prassas. This post is part of the Delaware law series, which is cosponsored by the Forum and Corporation Service Company; links to other posts in the series are available here.

In Miramar Police Officers’ Retirement Plan v. Murdoch [1] the Delaware Court of Chancery dismissed plaintiff’s claims, refusing to hold that an “unambiguous” boilerplate successors and assigns clause operated to bind a spun-off company to the terms of a contract entered into by its former parent company. The contract at issue generally restricted the former parent company from adopting a poison pill with a term of longer than one year without obtaining shareholder approval. The decision will serve as a reminder to practitioners to carefully consider the impact that significant corporate transactions could have on their clients’ contractual rights and obligations.

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Delaware Court of Chancery Rejects M&A Litigation Settlement

Posted by Ariel J. Deckelbaum, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, on
Monday, July 27, 2015
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Ariel J. Deckelbaum is a partner and deputy chair of the Corporate Department at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. This post is based on a Paul Weiss client memorandum. This post is part of the Delaware law series, which is cosponsored by the Forum and Corporation Service Company; links to other posts in the series are available here.

In Acevedo v. Aeroflex Holding Corporation, in connection with a stockholder suit that challenged the sale of a company with a controlling stockholder to a third party, the Delaware Court of Chancery rejected a settlement which provided a global release of claims in exchange for a reduced termination fee and a shortening of the matching-rights period by one day, holding that these deal protections were not impediments to competing bidders and therefore were insufficient to support a global release.

In 2014, Aeroflex agreed to sell itself to a third-party and a class-action challenging the transaction was subsequently commenced. After engaging in discovery and consulting with third-party experts, the plaintiff concluded that the consideration offered to the Aeroflex stockholders fell within a range of reasonable value for Aeroflex’s shares, but that the proxy omitted certain material facts. The parties agreed to a settlement where the plaintiff granted the defendants a global release of all possible claims in exchange for modifying the deal protections by (i) reducing the termination fee by over 40% from $32 million to $18 million, and (ii) shortening the matching rights period from four business days to three business days. Additionally, the defendants agreed to make certain supplemental disclosures in the proxy.

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Appraisal Arbitrage—Is There a Delaware Advantage?

Posted by Gaurav Jetley and Xinyu Ji , Analysis Group, Inc., on
Monday, July 27, 2015
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Gaurav Jetley is a Managing Principal and Xinyu Ji is a Vice President at Analysis Group, Inc. This post is based on a recent article authored by Mr. Jetley and Mr. Ji. The complete publication, including footnotes, is available here. This post is part of the Delaware law series, which is cosponsored by the Forum and Corporation Service Company; links to other posts in the series are available here.

Market observers have devoted a fair amount of attention to possible reasons underlying the recent increase in appraisal rights actions filed in the Delaware Chancery Court. A number of commentators have connected such an increase to recent rulings reaffirming appraisal rights of shares bought by appraisal arbitrageurs after the record date of the relevant transactions. Other reasons posited for the current increase in appraisal activity include the relatively high interest rate on the appraisal award and a belief that the Delaware Chancery Court may feel more comfortable finding fair values in excess of, rather than below, the transaction price.

In our paper Appraisal Arbitrage—Is There a Delaware Advantage?, we examine the extent to which economic incentives may have improved for appraisal arbitrageurs in recent years, which may help explain the increase in appraisal activity. We investigate three specific issues.

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Outsourcing: How Cyber Resilient Are You?

Posted by Dan Ryan, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP , on
Sunday, July 26, 2015
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Dan Ryan is Leader of the Financial Services Advisory Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. This post is based on a PwC publication by Bruce Oliver, Roozbeh Alavi, Garit Gemeinhardt, Amandeep Lamba, and Joe Walker.

Cyber attacks on financial institutions continue to increase, both in number and impact. While the industry’s defenses against cyber criminals have been improving, recent high-profile breaches indicate that many cyber risk areas remain under addressed.

Regulators are particularly concerned that the industry’s third-party service providers are a weak link that cyber attackers can exploit. [1] Financial institutions have become increasingly reliant on the information technology (IT) services these providers offer, either directly through the outsourcing of IT or indirectly through outsourced business processes that heavily rely on IT (e.g., loan servicing, collections, and payments). [2] Regardless, banks remain ultimately responsible—they own their service providers’ cyber risks.

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Boardroom Perspectives: Oversight of Material Litigation in Four Practical Steps

Posted by Jeff G. Hammel, Latham & Watkins LLP, on
Saturday, July 25, 2015
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Jeff G. Hammel is a partner and member of the Litigation Department at Latham & Watkins LLP. This post is based on a Latham publication by Mr. Hammel, Steven B. Stokdyk, Joel H. Trotter, and Jenna B. Cooper.

Public companies in the United States are subject to litigation in various areas, including: shareholder litigation; government investigations and enforcement actions; environmental litigation and intellectual property disputes. While certain litigation may be frivolous or merely routine, other claims may be costly and potentially damaging to the company’s bottom line, reputation, or both. It is important that boards be equipped to manage and mitigate risks associated with litigation deemed material to the company. The following tips are designed to give boards a framework from which to approach litigation oversight.

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What the Allergan/Valeant Story Teaches About Staggered Boards 

Posted by Arnold Pinkston, Former General Counsel, Allergan, Inc. and Beckman Coulter, Inc., on
Friday, July 24, 2015
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Arnold Pinkston is former General Counsel at Allergan, Inc. and Beckman Coulter, Inc. This post comments on the work of institutional investors working with the Shareholder Rights Project, (discussed on the Forum here, here, and here) which successfully advocated for board declassification in about 100 S&P 500 and Fortune 500 companies.

Until March 2015, I was the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Allergan, Inc. For much of 2014 my job was to address the hostile bid launched by Valeant and Pershing Square to acquire Allergan.

With that perspective, I followed with interest the debate surrounding staggered boards, and in particular the success of institutional investors working with the Shareholder Rights Project in bringing about board declassification in over 100 S&P 500 and Fortune 500 companies. From my perspective, the debate did not seem to fully reflect the complexity of the relationship between a company and its shareholders—i) that each company and each set of shareholders is unique; ii) that destaggering a board can affect the value of companies positively, negatively or hardly at all; and iii) that shareholders, each from their own unique perspective, will be searching for factors that will determine whether annual elections are in their own best interests—not the company’s. For that reason, I respectfully offer my thoughts regarding the campaign to destagger boards.

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The Changing Dynamics of Governance and Engagement

Posted by David A. Katz, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, on
Thursday, July 23, 2015
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David A. Katz is a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz specializing in the areas of mergers and acquisitions and complex securities transactions. The following post is based on an article by Mr. Katz and Laura A. McIntosh that first appeared in the New York Law Journal; the full article, including footnotes, is available here. Related research from the Program on Corporate Governance includes The Long-Term Effects of Hedge Fund Activism by Lucian Bebchuk, Alon Brav, and Wei Jiang (discussed on the Forum here), The Myth that Insulating Boards Serves Long-Term Value by Lucian Bebchuk (discussed on the Forum here), The Law and Economics of Blockholder Disclosure by Lucian Bebchuk and Robert J. Jackson Jr. (discussed on the Forum here), and Pre-Disclosure Accumulations by Activist Investors: Evidence and Policy by Lucian Bebchuk, Alon Brav, Robert J. Jackson Jr., and Wei Jiang.

As anticipated, the 2015 proxy season has been the “Season of Shareholder Engagement” for U.S. public companies. Activist attacks, high-profile battles for board seats, and shifting alliances of major investors and proxy advisors have created an environment in which shareholder engagement is near the top of every well-advised board’s to-do list. There is no shortage of advice as to how, when, and why directors should pursue this agenda item, and there is no doubt that they are highly motivated to do so. Director engagement is a powerful tool if used judiciously by companies in service of their strategic goals. As companies and their advisors study the lessons of the recent proxy season and look ahead, it is worth examining recent shifts in corporate governance dynamics. With an awareness of the general trends, and by taking specific actions as appropriate, boards can prepare and adapt effectively to position themselves as well as possible to achieve their strategic objectives.

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